---

At least five people were killed after a helicopter carrying Mexican tourists crashed near Mount Everest on Tuesday morning.

The Manang Air chopper took off from Surke in Nepal at about 10am local time heading for the capital Kathmandu, but lost contact with air traffic control 10 minutes later.

Rescuers have recovered the bodies of five people and were searching for the sixth, said Basanta Bhattarai, the chief government administrator in the area.

Airport officials said weather conditions had caused changes to be made to the helicopter’s planned flight route.

---